quite the adventure

This morning at 8:30 our group of 10 (7 Kassebaums plus 3 Surrys--our "travel buddies) plus our guide Shirley left for a day trip to the LongMen Grottoes. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Zhengzhou, so we boarded our bus and settled in for the drive. Pete Surry, the dad, is HYSTERICAL and had us all in stitches before we'd been on the road long. We saw beautiful countryside and lots of interesting villages. Finally we arrived at the LongMen Grottoes and wandered around. Situated on the bank of the Yellow River, the grottoes are a series of limestone caves with carvings of buddhist figures dating back 1200 to 1600 years. Pretty amazing...with pics maybe tomorrow. (that computer/camera thing...)

Anyway, after we were done, we decided to get lunch since it was about 12:30 and the boys were very hungry. So were the dads! Off we walked to the bus. Once on board, it seemed that we stopped at every gas station on the road. Finally we ended up at this great Chinese restaurant with an excellent lunch. Ryan was exhausted and slept through lunch, but the rest of us enjoyed delicious food: lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork, an excellent beef dish, broccoli, a celery based vegetable dish, noodle soup, and rice. Yummy!! It's fun to watch our girls eat so well--and so adventurously!--with chopsticks. After lunch and a trip to the restroom (ALWAYS an adventure in China) we got back on teh bus. That's when the day took an interesting turn...

On the way to the Grottoes, a belt started squealing and making "interesting" noises. When it was time to head home, this belt basically said, "No way!" So...off we go to find an auto repair shop. Once there, we all trooped off the bus into the lounge area (thankfully air-conditioned) and sat around for an hour while the mechanics replaced the very frayed belt from the bus. Once done, we reboarded the bus and headed back to Zhengzhou. By now, though, everyone is hot and tired and starting to get grumpy. Some napped, and that helped. By the time we arrived back at the hotel--about 6:15 pm--we were laughing hard from the combination of funny jokes and exhaustion. Today, it doesn't seem like a very wonderful day but I know that it's one of those we'll all remember forever....

Logan's doing amazingly well, all things considered. He eats like a champ and sleeps like no Kassebaum ever has (well, except Hailey!) He's resigned himself to the fact that we're NOT going away, and he even lets Jim do things for him once in a while. But today both Jim and I hit the wall. I cannot even go to the bathroom without fussing and pounding on the bathroom door. Usually I find it humorous because he'll let Jim take him to the bathroom, and he's okay playing in the tub if I'm not right there in front of him, but today it was part of what pushed me to the wall. The combination of Logan pinching me and slapping me for my attention on the bus and the guide's providing him with treats every time he cries sent me to the edge. I bit my tongue with the guide--she's only trying to help--but her "help" is making things more difficult. She frequently gives me parenting advice and has let me know more than once that I'm not doing a good job because Logan has a drippy nose. Plus, I let him drink COLD water! That's nearly unforgiveable here (which I know, but don't really care about) and she is CONVINCED that he's sick because I'm not giving him warm/hot water. Things are a bit better now (the boys are down for the night) but I am truly grateful that tomorrow is our last day with this guide. In the meantime: pray for us! I truly think that much of it is from being VERY tired of this town, and hope that a change of scenery will help.

On a positive note, we saw some great things in Logan today. He's very inquisitve, asking the guide great questions about the carvings and truly wanting to know. We looked through his picture book on the way home and discovered we have another "Daddy's boy" in the making--he LOVED the tools page in the book! He knew "saw" and "hammer" and quickly figured out "screwdriver" and "ladder." His eyes lit up when I told him that Daddy had those tools at home and that when he gets bigger he can use them just like Daddy. He's trying hard to speak English, adn we're getting a few new words every day.

And now I"m off to bed. It's been a long day, and I'm beyond tired. Mentally and emotionally I'm spent. A good night's sleep ought to help...